Protecting our children against Internet predators

How to Keep Your Computers Safe(er)

Now we come to one of my favorite pet peeves, Internet Explorer, (IE). You will be unlikely to hear this from many people, but Internet Explorer, is the most dangerous browser available. I have authoritative links to back up that statement. If you have the time to look through those links it would be difficult to make the decision to continue using Internet Explorer.

Links to Internet Explorer problems and issues:

I have used and tested the beta version, of Internet Explorer 7, that will be officially released with the next version of Windows, (Vista) I can say it is a major step in the right direction for usability, but what took so long? I get so much more functionality from Firefox I don't see an impending change coming soon in my organization. Other browsers have had those features and capabilities for years. In fact if it wasn't for so many people using the alternative browsers Microsoft would never have had an incentive to make ANY improvements.

What are some of the better alternatives? Opera and Firefox are two of the best.  Both of those browsers are heads and shoulders above IE in functionality and security, and both are free! Firefox has several features that make it very appealing. See our Firefox page.

OK, so what's wrong with IE? Let's start with THE big problem. Anyone who has ever tried to get updates from Microsoft using any other browser can't. Some people assume it's because you are on a Microsoft site and it requires a Microsoft product to get the updates. Not true. The site requires ActiveX!

There are several WEB sites that offer real-time virus scans of your system in a pinch. (They should only be used in an emergency). With only one exception we are aware of, none of those sites work with any other browser but IE. There are plenty of sites that are willing to check the security status or scan for malware on your system but guess what. They only work with IE. (With that one exception). So what's the story? All those sites need IE so they can have an close up and personal conversation with your computer. Think about this for a moment. Are you going to be comfortable using a browser that will allow a WEB site to talk directly to your system? If you said "no problem" then you could have a serious problem and not even know it. Unexplained intermittent errors, ads that appear out of nowhere, an unexplained but fairly sudden slowdown of your system, unusual hard disk activity (when you aren't actively using the computer) are all symptoms of unwanted software in your system almost always allowed in by Internet Explorer

IE is the only browser that natively supports ActiveX. ActiveX is like a very small application, (program), that IE deposits into your computer to allow those sites to see your system, your files, your identity and the list goes on. Most sites that require IE are telling you one of 3 things, either the site wasn't designed to standards, they don't care about people using another browser, or that the browser you are using, if it isn't IE, will NOT allow the site to see your computer. That sounds good to me!

It's not just ActiveX. Microsoft has frequently been slow to respond to many other security holes that have been found over the years. Before Firefox became popular Microsoft sometimes denied problems existed for 2-3 weeks before they would begin to take action. The company is so large that little can be done quickly or on time. The turnaround time on patches is still long. Some of the security problems have been posted as a "proof of concept" on the Internet before Microsoft even had a chance to begin developing a fix. This gives the people waiting for an invitation the means to take control of your system or worse. What's worse? When they take control of you computer you may not know it happened. They can steal anything they want, user names, passwords, Quicken files etc. A fairly recent development allows the intruders to encode an important file or database on your system and hold it for ransom. No kidding, this is for real.

IE also supports Visual Basic Scripting which allows pretty much the same bad things to happen to your system. There are web sites still in existence that REQUIRE the MS Virtual Machine, Microsoft's implementation of Java, and will not render in any other browser than Internet Explorer versions, prior to Windows XP SP1. There are utilities that that advertise "locking down IE" to make it a little more safe but it strips IE of some of its capabilities and if you go far enough IE will become inoperable.

I can't count the number of systems we have seen that had pop-up ads appear out of nowhere, frequently several at a time. We never see these problems on systems that don't use IE. In fact, IE related system malfunctions account for the majority of computer user complaints. The worst problems are the ones that can't be solved even after throwing 7-10 corrective solutions and potential fixes at the system. With all that said, a small fraction of our customers who use IE don't have problems. I consider them fortunate. There are a few web sites still around that don't support any other browser but IE but they're are disappearing fast.

If you have a site that just won't work without IE, use it for that site, then close IE and switch to something else, anything else, for the rest of your Internet session.

Portions of the above content is courtesy of the outstanding web site http://pcmax.com/index.html.  Please visit their site.